The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it may be described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present technology.
Vehicles are progressively provided with various features that may require communications for their proper operation. The communications may be internally between vehicle assemblies, and externally with other vehicles. As such, it becomes increasingly important for the implementation and use of proper security features, commonly through the use of cryptographic applications. Many vehicular applications use true or pseudo-random numbers with cryptography. For example, random numbers can be used in the generation of keys for various cryptographic applications.
Random number generation techniques are known. In various aspects, whether or not a number can truly be considered “random” depends, at least in part, on what is referred to as a random number seed that forms the basis of the number. A random number seed is commonly a number or vector used to initialize a random number generator. Generally, when a secret encryption key is pseudo-randomly generated, having the random number seed will allow one to obtain the key. For example, two or more systems using matching algorithms and matching seeds can generate matching sequences of non-repeating numbers that can be used to synchronize remote systems. As such, the basis for a good random number seed is becoming increasingly important, particularly with regard to features and aspects used to establish secure communications.
Preferably, the output produced by number generating algorithms will generally follow a probability distribution in a pseudo-random manner. Various means of entropy may be taken from quantum mechanics, such as through radioactive decay, thermal noise, radio noise, and the like. However, due to the nature of certain measurements, there can be varying levels of biases that may affect the true randomness of numbers based on such entropic sources. Random number seeds may also be obtained using computational methods, such as a linear congruential generator algorithm. However, these methods may require the use of a real time clock, which may not be present in certain vehicles. Further, these methods may be considered to only produce pseudo-random numbers.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system and method for providing a seed for generating a random number that may be used with various secure communications.